Dehumanization In Bartleby The Scrivener

Economic Pressure was used in the speech regularly to show the large division between the rich and the poor. The speaker refers to ‘the rich unnaturally elevated’, ‘weight of taxation, misrule and oppression’. ‘Destitution in horrid form stalks through street, lane and thourghfare’ ‘emaciated frames’. The terminology reflects on the economic pressures that the poor endured, high tax and poor working conditions that often led to illness and death. He emphasised how the richer of the society, the aristocracy, were ‘in exclusive possession of power’. This speech would have stirred the emotions of the crowds as they heard how hard their lives were to those belonging to the upper classes. The speaker creates horrid, desperate images of the poorer classes ‘insufferable despair,’ toll of the death-bell’ to highlight how hard their lives were. (Briggs, 1959, P.50) a secondary source reflected how Chartism ‘seems to have been strongest in the two kinds of places… centres of decaying or contracting industry’ and ‘new or expanding single industry towns’. Briggs ‘s writing shows that Chartism was prominent in only certain areas such as those of industry. Whereas, ‘almost non-existent in completely agricultural villages’.

In the narrator’s office, Bartleby is faced with being holed up by his employer. The narrator tells us “I resolved to assign Bartleby a corner by the folding-doors, but on my side of them… I placed his desk close up to a small side window in that part of the room, a window which originally had afforded a lateral view of certain grimy backyards and bricks, but which owing to subsequent erections, commanded no present view at all, though it gave some light… Still to further satisfactory arrangement, I procured a high green folding screen, which might entirely isolate Bartleby from my sight…” (Melville, 301). He has essentially cut Bartleby off from any forms of communication by this set-up, alienating him from the other workers in the office and the narrator as well. We see Bartleby deteriorate through his time in the office, starting off as a hard worker, to denying to do certain parts of his job, and finally, to completely cutting himself off and not doing any work, much to the chagrin of the narrator and the others. The work itself could also be compared to that of what he did in the Dead Letter Office, copying dead letters day in and day out for the law. There is no real destination for what he does, the works he copies will end up gathering

In “Bartleby, the Scrivener” the author, Herman Melville, uses indirect references to hint to many historical, literary, and biblical events. “Bartleby, the Scrivener” contains many allusions about important events that help connect this fictional story to actual events in Melville’s time period, before, and beyond. Melville uses allusions frequently throughout “Bartleby, the Scrivener” to help build connections with the real world and the fictitious world of this short story.

Herman Melville is an acclaimed author of the American Renaissance period and his most commendable works include “Bartleby, the Scrivener”. The story of “Bartleby” is not only a revelation of the business world of the mid-19th century but at the same time, it is also the manifestation of the emerging capitalistic lifestyle of perhaps New York’s most prominent street, Wall Street. Bartleby is a rather peculiar yet captivating figure. Bartleby’s life and death contribute to a sort of enigma for the reader and his employer. “Bartleby, the Scrivener” is a story that criticizes the monotonous day-to-day cycle that the modern working man is forcibly put in by society. With that being said, the death of Bartleby not only serves as a reflection

As the story continues, his sympathy for Bartleby’s predicament develops. Throughout paragraph 90, the lawyer discovers that Bartleby resides in the office and feels pity towards how Bartleby sustains such “ miserable friendlessness and loneliness.” Readers can acknowledge how the Lawyer struggles with maintaining the changing attitudes he feels towards Bartleby: “melancholy merge into fear” and “pity into repulsion” (137). The Lawyer intended to fire Bartleby for his refusal to work, but did not, for he feared of being portrayed as a “villain” (138). According to Jack Getman, the Lawyer has “become a different, more appealing person, one who is more responsive to the needs and rights of his workers” (Getman 738). It is evident that the Lawyer undergoes many changes in the interest of Bartleby.

One typically displays acts of charity for the love of mankind or benefit of society. However, differentiating whether a generous deed reflects altruistic behavior or selfishness can be difficult. In Herman Melville's "Bartleby, the Scrivener," the lawyer performs charitable conduct toward Bartleby to acquire self-approval and an honorable conscience.

The character of Bartleby in Herman Melville’s novella “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street” is a person who refuses to become an object in capitalistic society. Initially, he is the perfect example of the objectification and mechanization of humans in the workplace. In essence, Bartleby is a machine that continually produces. Ultimately, he begins to resist the mind numbing repetition of his tasks and the mechanization of his life. The other main character, the narrator, is a facilitator of the capitalistic machine. He dehumanizes his employees by ensuring that their free will is denied in the workplace using objectifying nicknames, providing a workplace devoid of human touch and connection,; and perpetuating mechanized, repetitive work. Melville’s “Bartleby, the Scrivener” shows the dehumanizing effects of working in a capitalistic environment and ultimately suggests that one must conform to a standard way of life or will cease to exist.

Everyone knows that poverty can lead to feelings of shame and humiliation, but what many people don’t realize is that sometimes overwhelming feelings of shame and humiliation lead to poverty. In her article “In the Search of Identity in Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street,” Maria de Valdes goes as far as to refer to shame and poverty as a “syndrome” because she believes they’re so closely associated. “It is a closed circle,” Valdes asserts. “You are poor because you are an outsider without education; you try to get an education, but you can’t take the contrastive evidence of poverty and ‘it keeps you down.’” In other words, poverty and shame are an endless cycle because a person will be ashamed to be impoverished, but won’t be able to move up because shame will always hold them back. This can be seen in Esperanza’s mother, who didn’t finish school because she was too ashamed that she didn’t have nice clothes like the other girls. “Shame is a bad thing, you know,” she warns Esperanza. “It keeps you down” (91). Shame kept her down by preventing her from finishing school, and in turn her lack of education kept her from pursuing her dreams. Instead, she settled into the housewife life, which she still regrets: “I could’ve been somebody, you know” (91). She says it sadly, like she’s mourning the loss of what

During this time period “In 1850 New York witnessed a broad range of militant working-class-political turmoil: mass meetings parades, rallies, demonstrations, and strikes” (Kuebrich 381). If you did not fall into the click of the industrial revolution, and capitalism you were then seen as an outcast and were not treated properly at all. Melville knew this and did not like it so he made this short story showing people the bad effects that come along with it. To prove his point he created his character Bartleby, and he is a symbol of the people who did not want to fall into the trap that was capitalism without even knowing that they have, so he created this story to show a much darker side of just that. Bartleby was his extreme way of showing

There are many ways someone can interpret “Bartleby the Scrivener”. I think throughout the story the narrator (the Lawyer) is the more sympathetic character.

In the short story “Bartleby, the Scrivener,” which was written by Herman Melville, the character named Bartleby is a very odd, yet interesting individual. In the story, Bartleby is introduced when he responds to a job opening at the narrator’s office. Although there is no background information given about him, it becomes very apparent that he will be the antagonist in this story. Unlike the usual image put on the antagonist, Bartleby causes conflict with a very quiet and calm temperament. This character’s attitude, along with the fact that he is a flat and static character, makes him a very unique antagonist, and this fact is shown through the way other characters approach and deal with his conflict.

First, the caring personality of the lawyer is portrayed when Bartleby did not accept the help that he was offered by the lawyer . Bartleby when he tried to make Bartleby open up and tell him his problems. In the phrase “Ah Bartleby! Ah Humanity!” the narrator uses Bartleby to present humanity. The phrase is a soliloquy from the narrator enquiring why Bartleby refused help. Bartleby is described as a hard working individual but refuses to smile at work or communicte with people at work (5). No-one knew why Bartleby did not smile or communicate with any of his co-workers, and that behavior continues throughout the story. His reponses to the questions that he was asked was, “I would prefer not to,” (14) was distubing to his boss. The reader sees the

In The Paradise of the Bachelors and Tartarus of Maids Melville demonstrates how the oppressive power of the upper class over the working class, molds and kill the social, emotional and physical life of the working class while they benefit from it. Melville depicts how industrialism created an economic separation of classes that although seemed unrelated and contradictory in their different spaces, both sustained each other. The upper class, the bachelors, needed the labor of the lower class to maintain the wealthy life they had and the lower class, the maids, survived with the small wages gained with their labor. In order for the upper class to continuously enjoy their privilege, they had to exploit in any way possible the working class.

In the story “Bartleby, The Scrivener” by Melville and it represents work and industry as horrid, and inhumane things. Throughout the story, there are metaphors, imagery, and the setting which depicts work and industry as horrid and dehumanizing because people go to work and have to obey their bosses in order to get paid. Melville introduces some solutions as to how an individual can make their job better which is by taking small steps when saying no and not doing the things that you are told to do. Just like Bartleby, who chooses to say “[He] would prefer not to” because this way we as humans are not stuck in the cycle of waking up, then going to work, go back home, eat, and then sleep because in the story it shows that our lives start off as Gingernut a 12-year-old who wants to work, then Nippers a 24 year old who has a lot of ambition in the office, then Turkey a 60 year old who realizes the

While Herman Melville’s lawyer in "Bartleby, the Scrivener" appears to have undergone a significant change in character by the story’s completion, the fact remains that the story is told through (the lawyer’s) first-person point-of-view. This choice of narration allows the lawyer not only to mislead the reader, but also to color himself as lawful and just. In the lawyer’s estimate, the reader is to view him as having not only made an effort to "save" Bartleby, but as a man who has himself changed for the good, ethically speaking. What the lawyer fails to acknowledge in his retelling of events is his inability to communicate with Bartleby not because of Bartleby’s shortcomings, but because of his own. The